Monday, August 6, 2018

Today in History for Aug. 6, 2018

Aug. 6, 1623 – Anne Hathaway, the wife of William
Shakespeare diedat the age of 67.

Aug. 6, 1777 – During the American Revolutionary War, the
bloody Battle of Oriskany prevented American relief of the Siege of Fort
Stanwix.

Aug. 6, 1786 - Scotland's beloved poet and bard Robert Burns,
best remembered for romantic classics like "Auld Lang Syne"
and "A Red, Red Rose," stood before his church a third and final time as
public penance for "antenuptial fornication" with Jean Armour.

Aug. 6, 1787 – Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the
United States were delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania and the debate began over the first draft of the U.S.
Constitution.

Aug. 6, 1861 - The Federal camp
“Dick Robinson” was established near Lexington, Kentucky to bolster the
standing of pro-Union men in the area.

Aug. 6, 1862 – During the Civil War, the C.S.S. Arkansas,
the most feared Confederate ironclad on the Mississippi River, was blown up by
her crew after suffering catastrophic mechanical problems and running aground
during a battle with the U.S.S. Essex near Baton Rouge, La. The crew blew up
the Arkansas to keep it from falling into Yankee hands. Although the Arkansas was never defeated, unreliable
engines doomed the craft to an early death.

Aug. 6, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought
with Indians near Fort Gaston, Calif.; at Kirksville, Mo.; at Tazewell, Tenn.;
at Malvern Hill, Thornburg and Mattapony, or Massaponax Church, in Virginia; at
Beech Creek and Pack’s Ferry on the New River in West Virginia.

Aug. 6, 1863 – During the Civil War, the Union vessel, Sea
Bride, was captured in the Atlantic Ocean, near the Cape of Good Hope, by the
Confederate raider, CSS Alabama.

Aug. 6, 1863 – During the Civil
War, a three-day Federal operation began in the communities of Greenfield,
Golden Grove and Carthage in Missouri. A four-day Federal operation began between
Lexington and Hopewell in Missouri.

Aug. 6, 1863 – During the Civil
War, skirmishes were fought near Fairfax Courthouse, Va.; and at Cacapon
Mountain and Moorefield in West Virginia.

Aug. 6, 1864 – During the Civil War, a skirmish occurred on
the Somerville Road near Decatur, Ala.

Aug. 6, 1864 – During the Civil
War, a 10-day Federal operation began from Little Rock to the Little Red River
in Arkansas; and a four-day Federal operation began in Saline County, Mo.

Aug. 6, 1864 – During the Civil
War, skirmishes were fought at Indian Village and Plaquemine in Louisiana.

Aug. 6, 1874 - Law officers killed Jim Reed, the first husband of the famous
bandit queen Belle Starr.

Aug. 6, 1878 – The Monroe Journal reported that a few days
before near Monroeville, an infant child of Mr. and Mrs. Chandler, in the third
stage of tuberculous meningitis.

Aug. 6, 1878 – The Monroe Journal reported that Capt.
Locklin had about completed his new warehouse at Claiborne and would be
prepared to offer superior inducements to farmers and merchants in the fall for
their patronage. The warehouse was said to have every facility for the
accommodation and convenience of patrons and no pains were to be spared to give
general satisfaction to the public. This made the third warehouse erected on
the same spot, the other two having been burned down by “some incendiary fiend.”

Aug. 6, 1878 – The Monroe Journal reported that the new
saloon at Perdue Hill was “handsomely fixed up and looks neat, cozy and
enticing. The liquors and cigars are the best brands, the wines are the best
the market affords and the best beer is always kept on tap.”

Aug. 6, 1881 – Sir Alexander Fleming, the bacteriologist who
discovered the antibacterial properties of penicillin, was born in Lochfield,
Scotland.

Aug. 6, 1885 – Prof. James A. York, who would serve as
principal of Monroe County High School, was born at Pinckard in Dale County,
Ala. He was elected in the latter part of 1918 to serve as principal at MCHS in
Monroeville, Ala.

Aug. 6, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that the
“magnificent new boat,” the Nettie, built at Wheeling, West Virginia, for John
Quill was expected to make “her first trip up” on this day, a Friday.

Aug. 6, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that a “negro
woman was found dead in a hollow log” near Belleville in Conecuh County one day
during the previous week.

Aug. 6, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that Sam
Yarborough was engaged in completing his “handsome new suburban residence. When
it is completed, Sam will have one of the handsomest, as well as one of the
most comfortable, residences in the place.”

Aug. 6, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that Sheriff
Burns was on a visit to his family at Pineville that week.

Aug. 6, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported, in news from the
Turnbull community, that Capt. T. Riley was contemplating a visit to Selma that
week.

Aug. 6, 1890 - At New York's Auburn Prison, axe murderer
William Kemmler became the first person to be executed by electric chair.

Aug. 6, 1890 - Cy Young achieved his first Major League
Baseball pitching victory. He would accumulate 511 in his career.

Aug. 6, 1895 – The first open boll of cotton reported in
Monroe County, Ala. during the 1895 season was left at The Monroe Journal
office on this day by farmer Frank Salter, who lived near Monroeville.

Aug. 6, 1906 - D.C. Mims of McGill stopped over in
Monroeville on this Monday on his way to attend the County Masonic Conference
at Tunnel Springs.

Aug. 6, 1907 - The Monroe County Masonic Conference was scheduled to meet in annual session with
Blacksher Lodge, No. 593, at Maros on this Tuesday. Past Grand Master James A.
Bilbro, Grand Lecturer Angus M. Scott and other prominent Masons had accepted
invitations to be present. Wed., Aug. 7, was to be devoted to public exercises
and an address was to be delivered by Judge Bilbro. Every lodge in the county
was earnestly urged to send a full quota of delegates and a cordial welcome was
extended to visiting brethren.

Aug. 6, 1909 – Children’s author and National Book Award
winner Norma Farber was born in Boston, Mass.

Aug. 6, 1915 – John Salter and Robert Watkins were hanged
around 11 a.m. at the gallows at the Conecuh County Courthouse in Evergreen,
Ala. by Sheriff Williams for the brutal murder of Martha Lassister on June 23.
At the same time, they made a brutal assault on Wiley House, left him for dead,
set fire to his house and fled. Watkins was hung first, followed by Salter, and
both were buried in the same grave.

Aug. 6, 1915 - Allied forces commanded by Sir Frederick
Stopford landed at Suvla Bay, on the Aegean Sea, to launch a fresh attack
against Turkish and German forces on the Gallipoli Peninsula during World War
I.

Aug. 6, 1930 – During his Senate campaign, John Hollis
Bankhead Jr. spoke to an overflow crowd at the Old Monroe County Courthouse in
Monroeville, Ala.

Aug. 6, 1930 – New York Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force
Crater, 41, stepped into a taxi in Manhattan near Times Square and mysteriously
disappeared never to be seen again. He was declared legally dead in 1939.

Aug. 6, 1931 – A charity baseball game between the
Methodists and the Baptists resulted in a 9-6 win by the Methodists at Gantt
Field in Evergreen. The score was tied on two different occasions, at the end
of the third inning and in the sixth. In the seventh, the Methodists succeeded
in putting over three more scores to win the game. The game was sponsored by
the Lions Club with proceeds to go to the Boy Scouts. The game was originally
scheduled for June 23, but ended in a 0-0 tie due to rain.

Aug. 6, 1931 - Gov. B.M. Miller late on this Thursday appointed
Leonard W. Price of Evergreen as Probate Judge of Conecuh County to fill the
vacancy caused by the death of Judge S.P. Dunn.

Aug. 6-7, 1931 - The Second Battalion First Tank Regiment
(Light) from Ft. Benning, Ga. was scheduled stop in Evergreen, Ala. en route to
Ft. Barrancas at Pensacola, Fla. Arrangements had been made to quarter the
battalion on the grounds at the City School building. The unit consisted of 275
enlisted men and 17 officers, and they were expected to arrive around noon on
Thurs., Aug. 6, spend the remainder of the day in Evergreen, before leaving the
next morning for Pensacola.

Aug. 6, 1940 – A total of 570 votes were cast in
Monroeville’s municipal election. B.L. Hendrix was elected mayor. Winners in
the council seat races included Lonnie J. Wiggins, Charles W. Cole, H.E.
Carter, R.M. Lazenby and R.C. McMillon. J.F. Davis was elected to serve as
Monroeville’s representative on the Democratic Executive Committee.

Aug. 6, 1945 - The
American B-29 bomber known as the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb named
“Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. It was the first
time that a nuclear weapon was ever used in warfare, and only the second time
that a nuclear weapon had ever been exploded. It was dropped over Hiroshima at
8:15 in the morning, and it exploded 1,900 feet above the ground, killing
140,000 people, including 70,000 who were killed instantly. Capt. Robert Lewis
watched the explosion from his cockpit and wrote in his journal, "My God,
what have we done?"

Aug. 6, 1946 – National Baseball Hall of Fame second baseman
Tony Lazzeri passed away at the age of 42 in San Francisco, Calif. During his
career, he played for the New York Yankees, the Chicago Cubs, the Brooklyn
Dodgers and the New York Giants. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991.

Aug. 6, 1949 - Chicago White Sox player Luke Appling played
in the 2,154th game of his 19-year Major League Baseball career.

Aug. 6, 1952 - Satchel Paige, at age 46, became the oldest
pitcher to complete a Major League Baseball game.

Aug. 6, 1953 – The Monroe Journal reported that Pvt. Wiley
Gene Sawyer of Frisco City was again on duty in Korea. News was received by his
parents, Mr. and Mrs. E.A. Sawyer of Frisco City, that he was serving as a
prisoner of war guard at Pungan-do. Sawyer had previously served 11 months in
Korea, having been wounded three times while on the front lines. He was awarded
the Purple Heart and was with the 21st Infantry, 24th
Division. Pvt. Sawyer attended Frisco City High School and volunteered for the
Army in 1950.

Aug. 6, 1959 - E.L. Baggett, Uriah farmer, received 50 cents
a pound on this Thursday for the first bale of cotton ginned in Monroe County.
The bale was ginned at the Farmers Cooperative Market in Frisco City and
weighed 457 pounds.

Aug. 6, 1960 – Mary Julia Ellis, 19, of Evergreen, Ala. was
named Conecuh County’s 1960 Maid of Cotton during the annual meeting of the
Conecuh County Farm Bureau at the Evergreen City School. Gerry Seales was
chosen as alternate Maid of Cotton, and the other contestants included Gwen
Henderson, Betty Jean Bower, Margaret McInnis, Barbara Bewley and Willene
Johnston. Ellis was to represent Conecuh County in the Alabama Maid of Cotton
Contest on Oct. 5 and Oct. 6 at the Alabama State Fair in Birmingham.

Aug. 6, 1964 – Leon Eddins of Peterman, Ala., who owned a
farm about two miles from Peterman, brought the first open cotton boll of the
year to The Monroe Journal. The boll opened on Aug. 3, and he picked it on Aug.
5.

Aug. 6, 1964 - The oldest known tree, “Prometheus,” was cut
down by a graduate student. The student and his research team hadn't recognized
the pine tree's extreme age-- estimated to be 4,862 years old.

Aug. 6, 1964 – During the Vietnam
War, Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara and Secretary of State Dean Rusk
appeared before a joint Congressional committee on foreign affairs to present
the Johnson administration’s arguments for a resolution authorizing the
president “to take all necessary measures.”

Aug. 6, 1965 – President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting
Rights Act.

Aug. 6, 1969 - The first fair ball to be hit completely out
of Dodger Stadium occurred when Willie "Pops" Stargell of the
Pittsburgh Pirates hit the ball 506 feet from home plate.

Aug. 6, 1969 - The U.S. Army
announced that Colonel Robert B. Rheault, Commander of the Fifth Special Forces
Group in Vietnam, and seven other Green Berets have been charged with
premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the summary execution of
a Vietnamese national, Thai Khac Chuyen, who had served as an agent for
Detachment B-57.

Aug. 6, 1970 - An anti-war rock festival was held at Shea
Stadium in New York. Janis Joplin, Paul Simon, Steppenwolf and Johnny Winters
were the acts.

Aug. 6, 1971 - The last remaining
troops of the Fourth Battalion, 503rd Infantry of the 173rd Airborne Brigade,
(the first U.S. Army ground combat unit to arrive in Vietnam in May 1965),
ceased combat operations and began preparations to leave Vietnam.

Aug. 6, 1975 – Fictional Belgian detective Hercule Poirot
received a front-page obituary in The New York Times after mystery writer
Agatha Christie killed him off in her 1975 novel, “Curtain: Hercule Poirot’s
Last Case.”